Last May (May 15, 2022) on one of northern Wisconsin’s largest inland lakes, my customers and I launched to chilly 45-degree water temperatures. Cold water be damned, we weren’t going to let it prevent us a good day. Despite the lake’s cold water, what we had working in our favor soon after was sunshine
After ice-out, smallmouth undertake structural migrations from wintering sites to their staging locations, utilizing the lake’s contours and breaklines as their trail in order to reach these temporary destinations. Where they stage and hold until water temperature becomes ideal for invading the shallows will often be situated within a close range from their spawning
Across many northern waters, smallmouth activity begins immediately after ice-out. Where catch and release-only regulations are implemented in Michigan and Wisconsin, it’s now possible to target smallmouths in spring while other gamefish species remain closed, the Great Lakes fisheries might not yet be ready, and other states and provinces aren’t yet open.
Winter relents. Spring creeps in. Ice has finished melting, and we have open water once again. At this time, smallmouths are schooling together and stacked; programmed to undergo structural migrations to where they will stage and set-up in preparation for their spawn which could be several weeks away. This process begins well before ice-out,